Union accused of withholding pension

Laborers Local 190 says he owed money

Published 7:25 pm, Monday, July 15, 2013

Albany

A longtime union member is suing top officials of Glenmont-based Laborers Local 190 charging they plan to withhold close to $35,000 of his pension benefits as retaliation because he supported an opposing candidate in a 2010 union election.

Paul Hyde Jr., 66, of Waterford, also contends Local 190 business manager Anthony Fresina told him on May 19, 2010, the day before his successful election against Kevin Seibert: "You're going to pay for this" and hurled an anti-gay slur at him.

Hyde is suing the union in U.S. District Court, where jurors heard opening arguments Monday before Magistrate Judge Christian Hummel.

Hyde alleged his money was wrongly withheld and his civil rights were violated.

"He is not against the union. He is against the people running the union," Hyde's attorney, Joseph Berger, said as Fresina and co-defendant Dominic Gerace, who administers the union's pension fund, looked on. They are being sued along with other union defendants.

Local 190 attorney James Long said Anthony Fresina never made discriminatory remarks to Hyde. Long told jurors Hyde wrongly collected a union pension while working in employment prohibited by the union for 18 months. Now, he said, Hyde is simply looking for money.

"He cheated the system. He's made up these allegations so he could come here today and try to pull the wool over your eyes," Long told the jury.

At issue is Hyde's work for the Albany-based U-Max Construction. Berger says Hyde never worked in so-called "prohibited employment" — which would deny him the right to earn the pension — because he was answering phones for U-Max and not working as a laborer.

In 2003, Hyde hurt his back while working at the home of U-Max president David Ucci, Berger said. He said Hyde applied for workers compensation benefits, but Ucci opposed it and sent a letter to Local 190 noting Hyde claimed to be a non-union employee.

No action was taken against Hyde between 2004 and 2007 by Local 190's then-pension fund administrator John Nardolillo, Berger said. Ucci wrote a second letter complaining about Hyde in 2007. That July 5, Gerace sent a letter to Hyde that the union would review his alleged prohibited employment, but nothing more came of it, Berger said.

On May 20, 2010, the day of the election, Gerace approached Hyde with the same letter he had sent him in 2007, Berger said. "It seems an awful coincidence," Berger told jurors.